Monday Morning
"Mommy don't leave! Mommy don't leave! Mommmmmmy!!" William howled in anguish as Maggie held him. Fat tears rolled down his cheers and he held out his arms imploringly. Nothing Maggie or Emily said to him made him any less hysterical. He fought hard to get away, but his grandmother held on tightly, worried that he would run out into traffic if he broke free. Mulder hugged him and Emily anyway, and told them to behave for Maggie over the little boy's screams.
Scully herself hung back, feeling like the worst mother in the world. Despite the experts being at odds over how much babies and toddlers could remember, she was absolutely certain that William could remember the day she gave him away. He was too young to understand what had happened then, but he was old enough now to grasp the implications of suitcases and Mommy and Daddy saying they'll be back soon. Soon could be never as far as a 23- month-old child was concerned given they couldn't tell time.
William thought she was abandoning him
"Don't leave!"
She was trying desperately to hold back her own tears as she and Mulder left to meet Doggett for their plane.
Monday Afternoon...
After a flight and a long car ride to the local PD, which turned out not to actually be in Montpelier, but in a small town thirty-five miles away, they were exhausted. Unfortunately their day was far from over. The sheriff who met them was square jawed and grumpy looking, and didn't seem terribly thrilled to see them.
"You must be the Feds."
"I'm agent Mulder, and this is Agent Doggett and Agent Scully." Mulder said with as much cheer as he could muster at that moment.
"I suppose you'll want to take a look at the cow." He said with a sigh. " You won't be able to until the morning, though. The farmer is pretty upset about are asking him to freeze it so you folks could have a little looksee. He goes to bed pretty early, so I don't want to keep him up." He smirked.
Scully didn't appreciate his condescending tone. "I was under the impression that someone from this office requested us coming up here, so I'm not sure where the barely veiled hostility is coming from." She said bluntly. While she was usually the most diplomatic of the three she was tired, didn't want to be there, and annoyed to have gotten such a cold welcome when being there kept her from her children.
The sheriff frown. "I made the call, but only after being pressured into it. I'm sorry that I'm not glad you're here, but I'm just not."
"Thank you for your candor." Mulder said gravely. "If we can't get started today, do you think you could recommend a hotel?"
The sheriff shook his head. "There aren't any where you're going."
"Where we're going?" Doggett asked, puzzled.
"The mountain." The sheriff supplied. "The investigation is supposed to take place there. All the farms that have been bothered have been on them." The agents exchanged a look. How could you farm a mountain? They didn't asked.
"It's a little cold still to be camping." Mulder protested mildly instead. It was thirty-seven degrees out, and guaranteed to be colder during the night.
"You accommodations are taken care of." The sheriff assured them. Mulder didn't like the look of grim mirth in the man's eyes when he said it. " I'll show you to it now, if you like."
It seemed like they drove forever, but it had really only been 45 minutes to an hour. When they followed the sheriff's car up the dirt road, Scully's heart began to sink. The sheriff had said there were no hotels, so she'd imagined a motel, or perhaps a motor lodge, since the mountains were prone to attracting tourists. No indoor pool, but that was ok, they were there to work, not vacation. But very few motels or even motels were situated on dirt roads in the middle of the woods.
She nearly groaned when their "accommodations" came into view. It was a log cabin. Mulder must have noticed it at the same time, because the first thing out of his mouth was "If there are any killer glow bugs in there we're out of here."
"Killer glow bugs?" Doggett sniggered.
"I thought you read all the files." Scully said archly. "In fact I seem to recall you saying something to that effect more than once."
"Yeah, well..." A dull red crept up his cheeks.
Mulder decided to take pity on him. For once. "A few months after Scully joined me on the X-files, we had a case out in the middle of the woods involving missing loggers. The culprit turned out to be an ancient bioluminescent insect species that had been released from hibernation when the tree they were in was cut down. These bugs just happened to enjoy spinning webs around people and sucking all the moisture out of them, leaving them a leathery mummy-like husk."
"Oh, is that all?" Doggett asked, looking a little green.
They parked and climbed out of their vehicle, going to join the sheriff, who was already waiting for them. "Come on in, folks."
The inside of the cabin could have been worse, but it also could have been much nicer, too. There was a large room with a fireplace that served as both living and dining room, a small kitchen stocked with dry and canned foods, and two small bedrooms which were the main source of their consternation. "I always wanted bunk-beds as a kid." Mulder commented wryly as he looked in one room, then the other. "I call top bunk!"
Scully rolled her eyes and gave the rooms dismayed looks. Doggett, on the other hand sighed deeply and grumbled, "At least we have indoor plumbing." Since he'd been the one to investigate the bathroom.
Mulder was in the middle of a quip about the joys of out houses when the sound of gravel crunching in the driveway alerted them that another vehicle had arrived.
"Oh, good." The sheriff said, "Looks like the last member of our party is finally here.